Lake Katwe Explosion crater Uganda Travel guide

The Lake Katwe Crater lakes also known as Katwe-Korongo explosion craters form part of the Uganda Volcanic craters in the prepossessing bed of Queen Elizabeth National Park in Toro Western Uganda. The explosion katwe craters are seen covering a field about 210 kilometres in size.

Well, straddling through the epic woodlands of the remarkable Mweya Peninsula, you actually feel the breath of the Uganda wildlife Safari when you step a foot on the highest elevation landscapes in the most toured national Park Queen Elizabeth.

Lake Katwe spans averagely 210 kilometers in size, the by then formed craters over a million years ago are recorded to have resulted as result of intensive heating from the mantle, forcing the crust to eject out the heated gas and steam although the process was a resultant of volcanicity that caused spewing ash and rock far and wide than piling debris around their vents as prior expected

The formed basins of craters do actually vary in size though they contain the same composites, the biggest an d highest crater actually covers just 3 kilometers and diameter however regardless of its small size, you will overwhelmed by its neighboring and inhabiting magnificent picturesque on your Uganda Safari.

Well, as you navigate around these basins, we shall not be surprised by the Sulphurous smells around the area, they were emitted in the area during the Pleistocene age of Lake katwe volcanic formation, this is evidenced in the areas of; the nearby Bunyaraguru Craters on the Kichwamba escarpment, the Ndali-Kasenda Craters near the popular Kibale National Park that harbors the friends of man-the chimpanzees, And the most adventurous and worth to visit-the Kyemengo crater.

Accessing the Katwe Craters in Queen Elizabeth National Park

You already stepped in the motherly Park, right?, Okay, Visiting Uganda is a thrilling dream that you should consider first, a visit to Queen Elizabeth Safari definitely gives you a handshake to explore these epic explosion crater lakes.

Within the park, Our Safari guide takes you just a short drive from Mweya Peninsula to the crater lakes about runs on 27 km with Salt deposits where you gain access to touch and feel the Salt rocks extracted from the crater lakes, the adventure equips you will knowledge about salt mining in Lake Katwe.

The drive enables you to enjoy a plenty of wildlife species especially the popular commons like the Buffaloes, elephants, warthogs, hyenas among others. The ride is worthy it as you encounter with the boiling salty hot springs that pour to the neighboring lake kitagata where you get to feel the beauty of Africa at your palm as well as having a chance to step in the East Africa Rift Valley full of sporadic tufts of trees, acacia and baobab, and on-again off-again grasses and shrubs as far as the eye can see atop the brown earthen crust.

Lake Katwe is known to be a saline lake in the region enclosing 3,265 feet by depth. Years back it is believed that the Salt deposits were most preferably of big interest just like Gold, with increased access to other salt deposits around Africa, the latter’s demand reduced.

Lake Katwe Salt Extraction: We shall visit and chat with the salt extracting societies, learn the process of salt mining at katwe, how they use logs to self-transport salt across the lake to other lake shore places. The activity is adventurous, women and men get involved in the process, there are no machines used but rather to extract salt locally using hands and local tools.

Summary of the Process of Salt Extraction at Lake Katwe.

A small part of the lake section is encircled to form a water Pan which shall then be then left, water with in these sections is allowed to evaporate, leaving down rock fragments of salt deposits containing 85% sodium chloride. It’s on this point that the society use local tools come and pluck out the deposits on to the ground manually.

Birding and Wildlife around the Crater Lake Katwe

It’s easy for one to encounter with the numerous grazing hippos especially at sun dusk evening hours, other animals to see here include; Elephants, Warthogs among others.

Birding Lake Katwe is also interesting, Over 500 different bird species do prefer algae in the lake. Many bird species come from the neighboring lakes of Albert, Edward and George and other inspiring niches in the park.